Automatic analyzers for clinical laboratory tests are used to measure specific constituents contained in such biological samples as of blood and urine. The operation of a general automatic analyzer is to dispense a sample and reagent into a reaction vessel via respective special nozzles. After stirring the sample and reagent and causing reactions between these substances for a fixed time, the automatic analyzer computes a concentration of a desired item from the information obtained from a resulting reaction solution such as absorbance and the amount of light generated by the analyte. The computation of such a concentration uses a calibration curve, in which an approximate amount of light absorbed or generated per unit concentration is adopted as an index. A way to compute concentration using absorbance in order to create a calibration curve is discussed below by way of example. First, a plurality of absorbance values per unit concentration are measured using several standard solutions of a predetermined concentration, and a relationship between the measured concentration and absorbance values is plotted. Then, the plotted data points are connected using regression equations/formulas for linearity or nonlinearity, thereby creating a calibration curve.
The number of standard solutions measured prior to the creation of the calibration curve differs depending on the item. These standard solutions may have a plurality of items in common with a solution, which makes it difficult for a user of the apparatus to accurately understand how long it will take till the measurement for a desired item becomes measurable.
Since a plurality of standard solutions need to be used, failure to request the measurement of even one of the standard solutions, or failure to set even one standard solution in the apparatus would result in failing to create a calibration curve, which would then make it necessary to request the measurement once again. This is greatly inconvenient.
Patent Document 1 as JP-2010-151707-A below discloses an example of an analyzer having a function that makes a GUI screen of a residual waiting time required until the analyzer can start measuring each of a plurality of standard solutions (hereinafter, this time may be referred to simply as the residual time). The creation of a calibration curve requires prior acquisition of measurement results on all the standard solutions necessary for a particular item. A plurality of standard solutions, however, might have a different number of items allocated to each of the standard solutions or might not be adjacent to each other. This makes it less beneficial to display the residual time up to the start of the measurement for each of the standard solutions since a total residual time for all the standard solutions needs to be confirmed and calculated before the time up to the acquisition of all desired items. Additionally, whether the necessary standard solutions have been measured needs to be confirmed for each of the standard solutions via a GUI, which will increase a workload upon the user of the apparatus.